Redbox to Offer $2 Video Game Rentals by June

Movie rental giant Redbox today announced that it will be offering video game rentals at more than 21,000 of its locations by June 17th this year. This may not be news to some, as the company has been experimenting with video game rental at over 5,000 of its locations since August 2009. Since then Redbox has rented over one million video games, a figure that Redbox feels demonstrates the popularity of video gaming in the U.S. In fact, around 64% of Americans own a video game console according to Interpret New Media Measure.

In the press release, Redbox president Mitch Lowe humbly announced that "Redbox will increase consumers' access to video game rentals by leveraging [its] incredible technology and business model to keep rental prices low for consumers." That low price will be $2 per game per day. Available games will include top releases for Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as popular family and kid's games. Alongside $1 DVD and $1.50 Blu-ray rentals, the video game rentals will make Redbox "the one-stop shop for entertainment."

Redbox will face some stiff competition since both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have online stores. Not to mention Gamefly (the Netflix of video games), which costs about $16 per month and you keep the game as long as you want, so $16 to keep a game for a month from Gamefly, or around $60 to do the same from Redbox.